"My first strand of beads was put into my hands by a friend who knew that I needed it. A Methodist, of all people, saw that I was lonely and looking for entertainment more often than being quiet and contemplative. 'Have you ever tried one of these?' she said, with the innocence of someone who had recently picked one up herself.
"The rosary beads she gave me were handmade by nuns in the American Southwest. I sometimes wish that I had a rosary that my grandparents had passed on to me, but they gave up their Irish and Italian Catholicism after they arrived in this country over a century ago. Anyway, this particular rosary was my first, and you always love your first. The San Damiano crucifix of Francis of Assisi hangs at the end, representing the icon that Francis knelt before in the abandoned church of San Damiano when he heard God speak to him for the first time.
"I carry the prayer beads with me every day in my pocket along with wallet, business cards, and Palm Pilot. I don't carry them as a talisman to ward off evil or as a good luck charm. But I do keep them in my pocket precisely so that I will be reminded of them, of my prayers, and of Christ throughout the day.
"The Catechism wisely states, 'In the living tradition of prayer, each Church proposes to its faithful, according to its historic, social, and cultural context, a language for prayer: words, melodies, gestures, iconography'. Words. Melodies. Gestures. Iconography. A world of divine good in those four words.
"But it is also OK to make up your own words to go with the beads on your rosary, selecting from the many traditions that abound for praying with them. Plenty of pamphlets will tell you the words to use and how to make your way around the strand; there are Web sites, too; and of course, any priest would be happy to show you how. The most important thing is to pray it and to allow your prayers to be repetitious. The Protestant mind rebels against repetition in spirituality, whereas the Catholic imagination understands that repetition schools the heart."
